Page 77 of Savior

“Ready, Ms. Sloane?” Dante asks me, and I pull from my chaotic thoughts, looking at where he has the SUV door held open for me.

“Sorry, yeah.” I grab the flowers and chocolates Luca brought me and my bag, step out, and follow Dante inside the apartment building.

“You alright?” he asks as I open the apartment and push inside.

“Yeah, just…” I sigh, not having the words to explain what I am and what’s happening in my head.

He nods. “I understand. It can’t be easy to be falling for a man like him. One you can’t fully have unless you ruin him on his way into your arms.”

His words sink through me, and they couldn’t be more accurate. Emotion claws at my throat so thickly that I can’t swallow around it.

Dante picks up on the effect of his words, and his eyes grow apologetic. “I’m sorry, Ms. Sloane. I didn’t mean to… I have a way of putting my foot in my goddamned mouth every time I open it, or so my wife says.”

I smile, his admittance making me feel lighter. But he wasn’t wrong.

“It’s alright. You’re not wrong. Though I know I could never have him, it’s still… I’ve never felt like I do around him. And it’s stupid even to be having this emotional dilemma amidst the shit show my life is lately, but I can’t help it.”

Dante shrugs. “I think love comes when we least expect it. Turmoil be damned.”

I nod in agreement as I put the flowers into a vase. They’re beautiful, and I can’t stop looking at them. While it was the smallest gesture to some, I’ve had no one buy me flowers before, and my heart soared when he handed them to me.

“Orchids,” Dante says, approaching the island where I’m getting them into a vase.

“That’s what they are?” I ask.

He nods. “They have many meanings, one being love and one being strength. I think the father likely picked them because of that. Flowers are a language all their own,” he finishes, and my heart is pounding.

I work open the box of chocolates, taking a caramel-filled and sliding the box across the island towards Dante.

He bites his bottom lip as he decides which he wants, settling for a strawberry cream, popping it into his mouth in one go, and closing his eyes as the flavors hit his tongue.

While I know Dante is an enforcer for Ardesia and the Ricci family, I find him refreshing and kind—the contrasted opposite to his predecessor, who’s now the Don of the Ricci family.

“Why didn’t you tell me it was your birthday?” Dante asks when silence falls between us as I put the lid back on the chocolate box.

I shrug. “My birthday isn’t something I’ve ever celebrated. My parents were always high or fighting, and I usually boughtmyself a cupcake and sat outside the store down from our apartment with Mary…”

“Mary?”

I wince, knowing I’ve given him a scrap of my past I’ve never shared with anyone.

“A homeless woman who used to sleep in front of the store. I’d share my cupcake with her, and she’d sing me Happy Birthday.” I wipe a tear off my face.

Someone who’s turning twenty-one should be happier than I am, right?

So much dread lives in my bones, fight-or-flight swimming in my body twenty-four-seven. It’s no way to fucking live, but what other option is there in my world?

Dante rounds the island and pulls me into him. “I’m sorry you’ve had to grow up how you did. But that’s your past. You’re standing here today, strong and beautiful; your past makes you who you are. You wouldn’t exist without it.”

I nod, sobbing into his chest and throwing myself a small pity party as he holds me tightly.

His chest rumbles as he sings ‘Happy Birthday’to me. I cry into his shirt, which smells like spiced cologne and cigarettes.

His kindness only makes me cry even harder.

When he’s done singing, I pull back, look up at him through my blurry eyes, and manage a smile. “Thank you, Dante.”

He nods. “Of course.”

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